There is a need during surgical procedures to maintain a sterile field around a patient's wound site. To maintain this sterile field, surgical instruments are typically sterilized by various means prior to being brought into the sterile field. These means of sterilization include the use of radiation, heat (such as in an autoclave), and the like. However, some devices used during surgery are not easily sterilized because of their size or sensitivity to sterilization procedures.
Rather than sterilize such devices, they are typically isolated through the use of surgical drapes that isolate the sterile field from non-sterile surfaces of the devices. These surgical drapes are typically composed of fabric or synthetic sheets that are draped, taped or clipped in such a way as to create a barrier between the sterile environment of the surgical field and the non-sterile environment surrounding such a device.
The isolation of a surgical device is more complicated when it is necessary for a portion of the device to hold an instrument that will directly contact a patient, or when the device has controls that need to be accessed by a medical practitioner. For example, in the case of a multi-jointed arm that can be used for holding surgical instruments in contact with the patient, the arm will typically need a portion outside of the surgical drape to attach to the instrument. Moreover, because a surgeon will often require several different instruments to be held in different positions at different points of a surgical procedure, and since it is critical for a surgeon to focus on the operation at hand, the means of attaching and removing instruments must be simple enough so as to not serve as a distraction, and versatile enough to be used in a variety of orientations.
Furthermore, the isolation of the arm may be more complicated because the arm may have controls located thereon, such as for altering the configuration of the arm. While a practitioner could operate the controls through the surgical drape, such operation may complicate the use of the controls, and may increase the risk of compromising the sterile barrier provided by the surgical drape.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a sterile barrier apparatus and related methods to provide a non-sterile fixture with sterile attachments, and with access to internal controls. Typical embodiments of the present invention satisfy these and other needs, and provide further related advantages.